I spent a while working out quite how my house is wired. They’ve really gone to town on the two-way switching, which complicates matters slightly, but isn’t a major problem.

So the only room that doesn’t require me to mess around with the existing circuit too much or to cut larger holes for 2-gang back boxes where there is currently a 1-gang fitted, is the master bedroom. I figured this was the best place to start. I’d never seen a Lightwave dimmer in action before, so I wanted to buy one to test it out before committing to anything more involved (and therefore costly).

So I went down to B&Q and bought a single Lightwave dimmer (and of course, a hand-held remote – it’s not much fun on it’s own). They have a pretty big display of the Siemens branded Lightwave range (with a really annoying video playing on a loop).

It took about 3 minutes to get the old switch out and the new dimmer installed. I also had to remove the ceiling pendant and replace it with a standard bayonet fitting. Again, the demands of Part L meant that the developers had installed some low energy 4 pin nonsense that wouldn’t dim.

I have to say, I’m very impressed with the results. The action of the switches is nice and firm and has a feeling of quality about it. The dimming action itself is smooth and silent. And the remote works brilliantly with a very fast response to commands.

So the next stage is to start changing things in other areas of the house. Next up will be the kitchen/living area downstairs. Two low energy ceiling pendants to replace, 9x SGU10 CFL down lighters to put dimmable bulbs in and some weird under cabinet LEDs (I phoned the manufacturer, and they promised me they were dimmable). Oh, and the 3 way light switch at the moment is of the 1 gang variety. So I’ll need to remove it and cut a hole to fit a 2 gang back box to accommodate the 3 way Lightwave dimmer.

After that will be the hallways. These get complicated very quickly due to the amount of two way switching going on. The house is split over three floors, and the landing light switch plate also houses the switch for the three bathrooms, which are two way switched with a bedroom each! So I’ll need 1x 3way master dimmer, 1x 2 way master dimmer, 1x 1 way master dimmer, and 4x 1 way slave dimmers. Once I change one switch to a dimmer, I have to do them all, as it’ll break the 2 way switching system if I don’t.

But that’s for another day. I think I’ll start with the kitchen next week…

3 Responses

Your blog aspires me, in all fairness! Sounds stupid but what you’re doing is what I am working towards.

Despite Lightwave being expensive (!) I am considering purchasing with the WiFi addon.

I am unsure yet of the difference between the switch and the slave. I have in most rooms upstairs only one switch, on and off. However, for the landing I have a single switch downstairs and a single switch upstairs. Can you advise what I’d need in this situation?

Note: My living room is the same. Two single switches, both turning the light on and off.

chris / 3-1-2013 / ·

Thanks Mike! Glad you’ve found the blog inspiring.

As I understand it, the Master is a full-on Lightwave switch with the dimmer and radio inside. The Slave doesn’t have either, and is just used to control the Master from the remote location.

It sounds like you’d need to designate one of the switches as the one where you will install your Master switch. And then install the Slave in the other location. It should be very simple to do. Read up about how 2-way switching is implemented on the web. There a two main different ways of doing it, one more common in older properties and the other the ‘current’ preferred method. So you’ll have to work out which one correlates to the way your house is wired. Goes without saying though. If you aren’t sure what you are doing, get a professional to do it for you!

I took the switches off the wall in my hall to find 9-10 cables coming out of the back of both of them!I’m going to have to speak to the spark who wired the house to find out what the hell he’s done there…

Mike / 3-1-2013 / ·

I certainly have, although how embarrassing that my first post had an epic grammatical failure. Your blog certainly “inspires” me! Haha.

Thanks so much for your reply. I wasn’t sure whether you’d have time too!

The slave and the master makes a lot of sense now. Obviously only one switch can report the status of the light and change it on or off properly, or they’d go out of sync compared to standard light switches.

LRF didn’t really clear that up well on product descriptions.

I’ll be able to wire the two way switches now you’ve cleared that up! Thanks.

Nightmare about your circuit. I hope you get it sorted! I haven’t really removed my light switches yet but I think it’ll be okay.